A DEVON DOUBLE . . . . . .

A double at Newton Abbot took our score for the season to 18 with a prize money total of £185,000.

While we had a quiet start to the month when the ground was a bit quicker than ideal we are finishing October with a flourish.

I was delighted with the way Breaking Cover added to his fine run of form over the last few months with a decisive victory in the Class 4 handicap Chase over two miles.

He has had a few issues, hasn’t been easy to train, and didn’t run for over a year, but is certainly making up for lost time now.

He was given a patient ride by Sam Twiston-Davies who let two front runners take each other on before making his move between them and quickly putting the result beyond doubt.

As Breaking Cover is nice and sound at the moment I will keep all options open. He is in a novice handicap Chase at Ascot on Saturday or I could wait and give him speculative entries in the Haldon Gold Cup and the Rising Stars Chase.

Sam then completed a double for the yard with a fluent success on Crest of Stars in the bumper.

I held high hopes for this horse last season. He is very well bred and worked like a high-class horse last winter. But lots of the youngsters in his barn were not quite right at the time with snotty noses and in his two starts he was a bit underwhelming, pulling hard.

Although I haven’t been hard on Crest of Stars in recent weeks, he’s done a nice volume of work and showed the benefit of that with a change of tactics at Newton Abbot.

He settled readily in front, didn’t pull hard and comfortably saw off a couple of challengers in the closing stages.

The experience will not be wasted and it was lovely to see our patience pay off. He has schooled loads over the past year and is likely to be seen next in a maiden hurdle towards the end of November.